Kim Jong Un boasts about 'reliable, effective' nuclear program amid stalled talks with US

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un not only bragged about “a nuclear state” but also pledged that there will not be “any war” on the same land during his speech marking the 67th anniversary of the end of Korean War of 1950-53. The North Korean leader said that his country’s nuclear weapons are hard-won and are ‘reliable, effective’ to prevent the second Korean War. The state media has reported Kim’s bragging about the nuclear developments in front of the war veterans, while its negotiations with the United States are indefinitely stalled. 

His address of July 27 came in the backdrop of both US and North Korean officials reportedly suggesting that they were not willing to engage in a new round of talks on the nuclear program of the latter anytime soon. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously asserted that the US President Donald Trump would only engage in negotiations with the North Korean leader only if there were the real potential of progress. 

Even Kim’s sister, who is the senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong had noted that another summit would be ‘unpractical’ for the country. According to her, North Korea would not provide the US President with a high-level meeting that he can later boast as foreign policy achievement. Meanwhile, the North Korean leader hailed its country’s enhanced ability to defend itself against ‘high-intensity pressures and military threats’. 

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“Now, we’ve changed to a country which can defend itself reliably and unwaveringly against high-intensity pressures and military threats and blackmailing by imperialistic reactionaries and hostile forces,” said the North Korean leader.

“There won’t be any war on this land again and our national security and future will be guaranteed firmly and permanently because of our reliable, effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent,” he added.

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US-North Korea tensed relations

It is over North Korea’s nuclear program that the US and the former stand at odds for a long time now. Since 2018 when the North Korean leader reached out to Washington for negotiations over his advancements of nuclear arsenals, Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump have met at least three times. 

However, nuclear diplomacy has reached a standstill since the Kim-Trump meeting of February 2019 in Vietnam after Kim rejected Trump’s proposal to get relief from heavy sanctions in turn of limited denuclearisation step. Meanwhile, North Korean leader entered 2020 by pledging to enhance the nuclear program and even threatening to reveal a new ‘strategic’ weapon. 

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(With inputs from AP)